A couple of weeks ago I listed a few things entrepreneurs can do improve their business in the New Year. It's always a pleasure to meet someone whose personal story shows the value of working hard toward such success. Robb McMahan is that someone.

Although Grand Canyon National Park officials don't track visitors' nationalities, they say they've noticed a sharp increase in international tourists in the past year or so and estimate that they now make up about 40% of all visitors to the massive gorge.

Fans of The Simpsons, the longest-running animated television series in history, have played through related video games worthy of yelling Woo hoo! (such as 2003's The Simpsons: Hit & Run ) and some deserving of a "D'oh!" (2002's The Simpsons Skateboarding ).

Moviegoers at 12 U.K. cinemas on Saturday became human joysticks. They were shown an ad for the Volvo XC70 before the movie Ratatouille, and were asked to put their hands in the air and wave them left or right as a group. A single camera at the front of the theater translated the audience's collective leanings, and the onscreen animated car drove in that direction.

The universe of "The Simpsons" -- outlandish, yellow and absent of normal human growth -- has sketched with parodying perfection the struggle of family life, the exploitation of a neighbor's good will and the bizarre qualities of school bus drivers, to name just a few of its accomplishments.